(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a presentation system, a display device, and a program.
(2) Description of Related Art
Recently, a number of presentation systems for performing presentations in conference rooms and the like are being developed. As an example of such presentation systems, a usage of a combination of a terminal such as a personal computer (PC) with a display device such as a projector connected via a network is coming into practical use. The followings explain conventional presentation systems.
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of the conventional presentation systems. The presentation system shown by the figure is made up of a PC 910 and a projector 920 connected via a local area network (LAN) 950 and displays an image projected by the projector 920 onto a screen 990.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram for showing a structure of the PC 910 and the projector 920 used in the above presentation system. The PC 910 is comprised of a communication unit 911, a display unit 912, and a file creation unit 913. The communication unit 911 executes tasks such as communication control between the PC 910 and the projector 920 via the LAN 950. To be more specific, a network interface corresponds to the communication unit 911. It performs process control such as transmission of a file which contains data indicating an image to be projected by the projector 920, and a reception of the image data transmitted from the projector 920, while transmitting the received image data to the display unit 912. As for the display unit 912, general display devices such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a liquid crystal display (LCD) may be used.
The file creation unit 913 creates and edits data which indicates an image to be projected by the projector 920. The PC 910 has application software which is generally called presentation software already installed and functions of the file creation unit 913 are realized by the software. Therefore, the file creation unit 913 may create and edit the data which indicates an image to be projected (to be referred as “slide data” hereinafter) onto the screen 990 at the time of a presentation performance. The slide data, for instance, is not image data itself which is expanded into a bitmap format. It is mainly made up from text displayed in the image, control text indicating the image, and the like. As for the control text, for instance, parameters which indicate a background color of the image, standard graphics and the like, a font and a color of the text which expresses the text part of the displayed image, and others may be included. Incidentally, compressed image data and others may be appended according to the need. By transferring the file including the slide data (to be referred as “presentation file” hereinafter), the load in transmission of the data on the network is reduced in comparison with a case where image data is transferred. Moreover, some contents of the slide data may realize functions such as moving one or more parts of the image data projected by the projector 920, by a control operation from the PC 910 (animation functions).
The projector 920 is comprised of a communication unit 921, a display unit 922, a file analysis unit 923, and an image expansion unit 924. The communication unit 921 executes communication control between the PC 910 and the projector 920 via the LAN 950. As for the display unit 922, image projecting mechanisms of general projectors including a LCD light valve and optics may be equipped.
The file analysis unit 923 analyzes the contents of the slide data transmitted by the PC 910. The image expansion unit 924 expands the slide data into image data to be actually projected onto the screen 990, based on the contents analysis, and makes the display unit 922 project the data. Incidentally, functions of the file analysis unit 923 and the image expansion unit 924 are realized by application software which is generally called a file viewer.
FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the process of the PC 910 and the projector 920. First, a file including the slide data is created, by using the function of the file creation unit 913 of the PC 910 (S901). Then the PC 910 transmits the created file via the communication unit 911 (S902).
The communication unit 921 of the projector 920 receives the transmitted file (S903), and the file analysis unit 923 executes an analysis of the contents of the file, namely, the slide data (S904). The image expansion unit 924 expands the slide data into image data according to the analysis result (S905), and makes the display unit 922 display the image (S906).
On the other hand, the image expansion unit 924 transmits the expanded image data to the PC 910 via the communication unit 921 (S907). The PC 910 receives the image data (S908), then displays the image to the display unit 912 (S909). This allows an identical image of the image which is projected to the screen 990 to appear on the display unit 912 of the PC 910.
However, the above conventional presentation system has been providing a poor usability to a person who actually performs a presentation (to be referred as a “presenter” hereinafter). For example, there is a time when the presenter would like to refer to explanatory notes for reading out to his audience. However, a presentation venue tends to be dark with no lights on and it is therefore difficult to refer to the prepared notes during the presentation performance, thus interfering with a smooth presentation performance.
To deal with these problems, following presentation software is in practical use. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the function of conventional presentation software. As shown in the figure, conventional presentation software provides an area 9122 (to be referred as a notes area hereinafter) for displaying explanatory notes and the like in the display unit 912 of the PC 910, in addition to an area 9121 (to be referred as a slide area hereinafter) which displays an image of the slide to be displayed by the projector 930 which is connected to the PC 910 via a cable 960 (to be referred as a slide hereinafter). The presenter may perform a presentation while referring to the explanatory notes displayed in the notes area 9122.
However, there are times when the above conventional presentation software still shows a poor usability. The slide area 9121 and the notes area 9122 are two different areas and if the notes area 9122 is moved to the top of the slide area 9121, the slide may be partially hidden beneath the notes area 9122, thus the presenter may not refer to both areas as required while performing a presentation.
For instance, when a Japanese presenter performs an English presentation for foreign audience, the presenter may wish to refer to a translated notes in Japanese while displaying English slides in the slide area 9121. When long English sentences are used or the sentences are dispersed all over the slides, it is difficult to give a presentation while judging which Japanese sentence corresponds to a particular English sentence at the same time, even with the translated text in the notes area 9122, and as a result, a smooth flow of the presentation is interfered.
Moreover, when a graph such as a line graph is displayed in the slide, the presenter may wish to refer to the explanatory notes prepared individually for each part of the graph. Again, it is difficult to give a presentation while judging the corresponding relationship between the graph and the explanatory notes displayed in the notes area 9122.